Painted Lady

This treasure is on the most beautiful block downtown, a street lined on both sides with fine old houses painted up in amazing colors. In the summer the shade from the immense trees is cool and green and the buildings are hard to see all at once, but right now with the leaves gone there are some pretty straight shots. I count at least 7 colors on this paint job. One of my favorite things is the topiary on the left--it's a little dark to make out that it's trimmed in a spiral shape. The most puzzling element is the window box of faded plastic flowers in the window over the front door: why plastic? why blue and red? and for heavens sake, why don't you at least put in new ones when they fade?!